Download as Portable Document Format (PDF)
Only electronic files of the manuscripts are acceptable. We recommed that authors use the example manuscript as formatting guide. All manuscripts must be submitted electronically using this website. Send any questions to: [email protected].

Jump to:   Set up an Account | Manuscript Formatting | How to upload your Manuscript

To submit articles to Lyonia, you will need an account on this site. Signing up for an account is easy!

1. First, click "Submit to Lyonia" in the bar above.
2. Next, type in the username you would like to use for this site. You can use any username you'd like
3. If the username you chose is not already in use, an account will be created immediately. You will then see a page for your contact information
4. Fill in the contact information as completely and accurately as possible (make sure to set a password), and click "Save Changes". Your information will be kept completely confidential, and is not shared outside Lyonia.
5. All Done! You are now able to upload manuscripts. You can log in using the "Log In" link in the menu bar.

See "How to Upload your Manuscript" for details on the upload process.



All manuscripts submitted to Lyonia must be electronic documents. Overall, there are serveral important things to keep in mind:

• Manuscripts should be exported as Plain Text. (Microsoft Word or other word-processor documents will not be accepted)
• Manuscripts can use special 'tags' for figures, section headers, tables, bold, and other special content.
• All figures and photographs must be saved as independent files, in either JPEG or GIF formats.

The easiest way to make a plain-text article is simply to type it out in plain text. However, many authors won't feel comfortable writing their text in Notepad or Textedit, without the help of spellcheck and many of the other features of word processors. Therefore, you can export your article from your favorite word processor in a format that is acceptable to Lyonia.

Step 1: Split up the abstract, body text, and title information.
The submission process keeps track of the abstract and article body separately, so you will need a separate file for each. Also, remove the title, authors, and institution information from either document. You will type (or paste) this information into the site when you upload your article.

Step 2: Export the text
The exact method depends on whether you need to keep bold and italic formatting from your source document, or if you've used the Lyonia-specific tags (see below) to mark the bold and italic sections. Please note that only bold, italic, line breaks, and tables will be preserved.

If you would like to keep bold, italic, and tables of text:

1. If you are using Microsoft Word, we strongly suggest that you export using a word processor with better HTML export capabilities. Both OpenOffice and AbiWord (both free) work very well, and can open existing MS Word files.
2. To export, go to File, then "Save As", and select the option for "HTML"
3. Check the "advanced" or "options" options in your word processor. Choose the settings to export the most basic HTML possible ("Display information only", or something similar).
4. In the options for the file save, set the "encoding" or "character set" to UTF-8. This will allow non-english characters to be imported correctly.
5. Save the abstract and body text files

If you've marked up your bold and italic text with the Lyonia Markup:

1. To export, go to File, then "Save As", and select the option for "Plain Text (.txt)"
2. In the options for the file save, set the "encoding" or "character set" to UTF-8. This will allow non-english characters to be imported correctly.
3. Save the abstract and body text files

That's it! You will upload these files on the Submit Article Page.


To allow authors to insert figures, tables, section headers, subheadings, and text formatting into their documents. Each allowed tag is descibed below with an example.

Bold: [[b+]] and [[b-]]
These tags enclose any text that should be bold.
Italic: [[i+]] and [[i-]]
These tags enclose any text that should be italic.
Section Headers: [[headername]]
These tags mark the start of article sections.


Available Section headers are:
[[Abstract]] (Abstract Only)
[[Resumen]] (Abstract Only)
[[Introduction]]
[[Materials]]
[[Methods]]
[[Materials and Methods]]
[[Results]]
[[Discussion]]
[[Results and Discussion]]
[[Conclusions]]
[[Acknowledgements]]
[[References]]
[[Appendices]]
[[Introducción]]
[[Materiales]]
[[Métodos]]
[[Materiales y Métodos]]
[[Resultados]]
[[Discusión]]
[[Resultados y Discusión]]
[[Conclusiones]]
[[Agradecimientos]]
[[Referencias]]
[[Anexo]]
[[Introduccion]]
[[Metodos]]
[[Materiales y Métodos]]
[[Discusión]]
[[Resultados y Discusión]]


Subheadings: [[subheading text="subheading text here"]]
This tag notes any text you would like displayed as a subheading.
Figures: [[figure filename="picturefilename.ext" caption="Figure n: Picture Caption goes here"]]
This tag notes the placement, filename, and caption for any picture you have. If you format the caption carefully, you the site will automatically generate links between references and the actual figure. (See below, "Figure Links"). Note: the filename is case-sensitive.
Figure Links: [[Figure n]]
This tag notes any text you would like to have linked to a specific figure. Note that the text inside the is very important to make the link work. To be sure the links work every time, start both the caption and the link with the same text (i.e. "Figure 1"). This allows the site to know what to link.
Citation Links: [[citation text="citation text here" number="n"]]
This tag notes any text you would like to have linked to a specific reference. Note the number you choose for the "number" parameter needs to be the same as the one you use in the text tag, [[source ... ]].
Citation Sources (References): [[source number="n"]]
This tag notes the source you would like links to go to, using the same number used in the
[[citation ... ]] tag above. Note that in this example, the example link above moves the page to this text.
URLs and Email addresses:
Any URLs (starting with http:// or https://), or email addresses ([email protected]) will automatically be converted to real links.


Paper sumbissions should to be acompanied by a "cover note" on the submission page. This letter may convey additional commets to the editor, and might include suggestions of qualified reviewers. If the manuscript includes any previously published material (text, figures etc.) you must state in the cover letter that you have received unrestricted permission from the copyright holders for this use. Once the manuscript has been accepted you will be required to sumbit copies of the applicable signed copyright permissions and Publication Agreement. When resubmitting a manuscript after revision, the cover letter must communicate the details of revisions made to the manuscript.

Page proofs will be sent to the author, shortly before printing, as an "Adobe Acrobat portable document" format (PDF) file. The Acrobat file retains font, page layout and graphics information; it can be delivered across networks, viewed on screen and printed from most PC platforms. You will need the "Adobe Acrobat Reader" in order to view these files; if you do not have one, you may download a free copy from (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html). At this stage, you may find minor alterations to conform to scientific, technical, stylistic or grammatical standards. Typeset proofs are checked before they are sent to the authors; however, it is the responsibility of the author/s to review page proofs carefully and check for citations, formulae, omissions in text, etc.


The cover page must contain: a) the title (as short as possible and do not use all capital letters) in the paper's language and in English b) the list of authors, each with her or his complete name, affiliation, address and e-mail, identifying the corresponding author; and c) a short title or running head (not longer than 50 characters including spaces).

If the authors’ present address is different from the institutional affiliation of the author during the period when all or most of the research was carried out, this should be mentioned as a note at the bottom of the title page.


The abstract should focus on the purpose of the study, the major findings and main conclusions. The abstract should be no longer than 250 words, and should contain up to 5 key words not included in the title. In addition, you must provide an abstract in English if the paper is in another language. This second abstract should be more detailed, but and it should be no longer than 500 words. Do not include bibliographic citations in the abstract. Please provide up to 5 keywords not already included in the title after the abstract.


Write with precision, clarity, and economy. Use the active voice and first person where appropriate (passive voice is preferred in describing methods and results; active voice may be used to emphasize a personal opinion, typically in the Introduction and Discussion sections).

Use an ordinary 12-points serif typeset (Times New Roman or similar). Number all pages, including references and acknowledgments. Do not indent paragraphs or titles. Use left alignment and do not hyphenate. Do not use the carriage return (enter) at the end of lines within a paragraph. Use two returns at the end of paragraphs (i.e., one empty line between paragraphs). Use consistent punctuation; insert only a single space between words and after punctuation.

Do not to use more than two title levels to organize the text. You can use any headings and subheadings that you think useful. Preferred headings are (in order): Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and References. Type headings and subheadings on separate lines, using the code above. Try to keep them short so that they will fit within a single column (aprox. 30 characters, including spaces, for headings and 40 characters for subheadings).

Footnotes should be avoided (they may be incorporated in the text, parenthetically if necessary). Use "e.g.," (for example), "i.e.," (that is) and "et al." (and others), without italics.

For instructions on bibliographic citations see "References" below.


Give the Latin names of the species always in italics, and in full at their first mention in text (even after a full mention in the title) with the authority for its name (or cite a checklist or authority work which may be consulted by the readers); genera names may be abbreviated to a single letter thereafter (or two, only if needed) if no confusion will result. Space limitations in tables or figures may require use of a "code" (such as the first letters of the genus and species names) that should be in italics, like the original scientific name. If this is the case, codes must be identified in the legend or, if they are too many of them, in an appendix at the end of the paper.

Use "." (point) as decimal symbol. Do not use any symbol to separate thousands digits. Use leading zeroes (at the left) with all number <1, including probability values (e.g., P< 0.001).

Numbers from one to nine should be spelled out in the text, except when used with units or in percentages (e.g., two trees, 12 species, 5 seconds, 3.5%). At the beginning of a phrase always spell out numbers (e.g., "Thirty-two devices were...").

Use 24 hours time format, with ":" as separator (e.g., 15:45 h). Use day/month/year as date format (e.g., 25 September 2000, or 25/09/00 if needed in tables or figures). Give years in full (e.g., "1994–2000").

Define all symbols, abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used. In the text, when only one unit appears in a denominator, use the solidus or slash "/" (e.g., g/m2 ); for two or more units in a denominator, use negative exponents (e.g., g.m-2.h-1) . Use "L" instead of "l" for liters. Use "h" for hours and do not abbreviate "day". Mathematical expressions should be carefully represented. If possible, please format formulae in their final version (for example, you may use the "Equation editor" included in MS Word or in WordPerfect); otherwise, make them understandable enough to be formatted during typesetting (e.g., use underlining for fractions and type numerator and denominator in different lines).

Include, at the end of the manuscript, a list of any non-keyboard, special symbols used in text or legends (e.g., Greek letters, mean, plus/minus, circles or squares). Name them under a "List of special symbols" and then insert each symbol and describe it briefly (e.g., ±: plus/minus symbol; : Greek letter lower case pi; ≥: bigger than or equal symbol; ♦: black rhombus symbol).


Italicize scientific names and all books, journals and periodical titles. Italics should rarely be used for emphasis.


Keep them short and specific to direct contributions to the paper and the research involved. Use the initials and the surname of the people you acknowledge, but do not include their institutional affiliation.


Before submitting the manuscript, check each citation in the text against the literature cited to see that they match exactly (date and spelling) and that all the required bibliographical details are given. Total page number are preferred, but optional; place (city and country) of publication of books are also optional for international publishers or for easily available publications (but provide it for local publishers or rare publications). Give full surnames for papers up to six authors (or provide the initial five and use "et al." for the rest). For papers still in press, use "in press" to replace the date in reference list and citation in the text, and consider them as the latest in the chronological order. The list should conform in sequentiality and punctuation to the examples given below (with notes between brackets):

Author1, A.B. & B.C. Author2. 1989. Title of article. Brief Journal Title in Italics, 00(0):000–000
Author1, A.B.; B. Author2; CD Author3; DE Author4; FG Author5 et al. [if more than six] (eds). In press. Book Title in italics. Publisher [optional: City, Country. 000 pp.]
Author1, A. & B. Author2, Jr. 1989. Chapter title. [Chapter number] Pp. 00–00 in: AB Editor (ed.). Book Title in Italics. Vol. 1. 2nd edn. Publisher [optional: City, Country. 000 pp.]
Author, A. 1989. Paper title with lower-case initials to all words and italics. PhD thesis, University. [City, if not obvious from the University name, and Country].

For manuscripts in Spanish, replace "in:" for "en:" and "In press" for "En prensa" in the entire list, irrespective of the language of the reference title. Similar changes are expected for manuscripts in Portuguese. Do not use the expression "ibid." (ibidem, as above) in the reference list: the full reference details must be repeated.

All journal titles should be abbreviated according to Biological Abstracts or another recognized standard; if unknown, spell them out completely.

References should be ordered alphabetically in the reference list. For compounded surnames, the capital letter usually indicates the alphabetical order (e.g., V Van Gogh under "V", but L van Beethoven [van Beethoven, L] under "B"; O McDonald under "Mac"; A Di Meola under "D", but C de Burgh [de Burgh, C] under "B"). Where several references correspond to the same authors they should be placed in chronological order in the list. If there is more than one reference by the same series of authors they should be listed in alphabetical order of the subsequent authors, and then chronologically.

Do not include in the References: abstracts, unpublished material or papers in proceedings not widely distributed and easily available. These materials may be listed in the text as personal observations (by one of the authors of the manuscript, citing it as "Author1, pers. obs.", or just "pers. obs." if by all the authors), personal communications (information from third parties: "Author, affiliation, pers. comm.), or public communications (information in published abstracts, or information publicly distributed over the Internet but not permanently archived: "Author, affiliation, public comm.").

Cite references in the text as "Author (Year)" or, if in parenthesis, as "(Author Year)" [e.g., Pérez (1998) or (Pérez 1998)]. Use "et al." for more than two authors, as in "Author1 et al. (Year)", and "&" for papers by two authors, as in "(Author1 & Author2 Year)"]. Use lower-case letters to distinguish between two papers by the same authors in the same year [e.g., Pérez et al. 1998a and Pérez et al. 1998b]. This distinction must be also present in the References. Separate with "," (comma) papers by the same authors in different years [e.g., Pérez et al. (1996, 1999).

List multiple citations in chronological, not alphabetical, order [e.g., (Joe 1996; John 1999; Jack et al. 2001)], using ";" (semicolon) to separate references by different authors. The only exception is for papers by the same authors, that you should cite together in the chronological order of the older one [e.g., (Joe 1996, 1999; John 1998, Jack et al. 2001)]. You may refer to specific pages in a work by putting, in the text, the page numbers after the year, e.g. Joe (1996:57–85); in the "Literature Cited" list, the reference should be to the entire work. The expressions "in litt." and "op. cit." should be avoided. The following form should be used: (Joe 1967, cited in John 1989). Both should appear in full in the reference list.

Keep tables as simple as possible and make them understandable without reference to the text. Never repeat the same material in figures and tables; when either is equally clear, a figure is preferable. Do not include any type of information in tables that is not discussed in the text of the manuscript.

Tables formatted in MS Word or WordPerfect (or as RTF tables), each in a different page, are preferred; if this is not possible, separate each field or data with tabs (never with spaces). Do not divide tables in two or more parts and do not exceed the page width of 145 mm.

Do not use vertical lines and try to minimize the horizontal ones.

Do not use an excessive number of digits when writing a decimal numbers; they should reflect the precision of the measurements.


It is important to note that figures must be separated from the document upon upload, and as such, should have a unique file for each figure in your document. Use the [[figure]] tag described above to note where you want figures to appear in your document, and they will be automatically re-inserted upon submission of the article. Figures must be JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) files, and can be any size. Each figure must be self-explanatory and be referenced in text. Avoid repeating information among tables, figures, and text. Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units used in a figure should match those used in the text.

Figure widths should not exceed the page width (145 mm). Figures should be designed at final size, with the size of the letters between 6 and 12 points (ideally 8–10 points). Lettering is best in a sans-serif face (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Century Gothic, Verdana, Tahoma, News Gothic) capitalizing only the initial letters. Please note that pictures wider than the page will be automatically resized and linked to their full-size versions.

Figures should not be boxed; try to minimize the number of lines (e.g., do not draw top and right lines in an ordinary scatterplot). Do not use titles or identifying letters (as a) and b)) on the graphs. Do not send color figures. Use black, white (open) and bold hatching for bars and symbols. Try to avoid gray shades or use them as distinctly as possible (only 50%, or 25%, 50% and 75%). Preferred symbols are open or closed black circles, squares and triangles. Symbols should be of approximately 1.5 mm in their final size.

Include symbol keys within the body of the illustration rather than in the legend. Some straightforward symbols can be included within legends, but only if it is essential to do so. The use of shades and half tones within boxes and symbols in legends presents great difficulties for typesetting and should be avoided.


Color or black and white Photographs can be included. They should convey information that is essential to the understanding of the article. They should be "clear" and have high contrast. Name and number them as explained for figures.

They should be sent as electronic files, scanned at grayscale (8 bits) depth at least at 300 dpi, preferably for a final size of one column (=70 mm wide). They should be saved as JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) files, available as exporting formats in most graphic and scanning packages.


Maps should only be included if they convey information that is essential to the understanding of the article. Name and number them as explained for figures. Plan them preferably for a final size of one column (=70 mm wide). Include north, graphic scale and coordinates. As in figures, full color, use black and white hatches or very different shades of gray (25%, 50%, 75%). Be sure to include keys in the image rather than in the legend. Send them as recommended for figures.


Papers that do not conform to these guidelines will be returned to the authors


Lyonia does not accept unsolicited book revisions. If you like a book to be reviewed please send a copy to the editors address. Lyonia reserves the right to publish book reviews, and the submission for review does not guarantee that a review is being published. Books submitted foir review will not be returned.

Publication Agreement Form
All authors must send a signed publication agreement form to the editorial office prior to the publication of their article.

Permission to use previously published material
If your paper contains material (e.g. text, tables, graphs, photographs, illustrations etc.) that was previously published by someone else (or published by you in a publication that does not give authors the right to republish materials from their own articles without obtaining permission), you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder to republish that material. This written permission must be forwarded to the editorial office upon acceptance of your article for publication.

Please print and use the copyright form to confirm that you have permission to use previously published material. Please mail the completed form to the editorial office. Please not that the permission must be unrestricted. If permission is denied, the respective material has to be removed from the article.

Uploading your manuscript is a fairly straight-forward process. Here's a step-by-step list of how to submit your manuscript to Lyonia.

1. First, format the manuscript according to the guidelines above. Lyonia is a completely electronic journal, so the requirements and format is a bit different than you'll find in most places. Make sure you have separate abstract and body text files, any Lyonia tags you want in the files, and all your figures saved as external files.
2. Put all the files in one folder on your hard drive, without any subdirectories.
3. If you have more than a few figures, you can save some time on your upload by creating a "zip" archive of all of them. For more information on Windows, check out Winzip; On a Macintosh, select the files, control-click, and select "Create Archive"; On linux, use 'zip'.
4. Log in to your account.
5. Click the "Submit an Article" link in the gray menu bar.
6. On this page, fill in all the fields
• Title (English) is the title of the article, in English
• Title (Original Language) is the title of the article, in whatever language it was written in. If this is English, leave this field blank.
• Short Title is a very short ( < 50 characters ) title for the article
• Authors is a list of all Authors on the article, as you want them to appear.
• Institution is a list of any relevant institutions for this article.
• Abstract: Paste the contents of your abstract file here.
• Body Text: Click "Choose File", and select the file you exported for the article body text.
• Attachments: Use as many of the attachment slots as you need to upload all of your figures. If you have more than 10 figures, zip the files up as described above
7. Click "Submit Article"!
8. The Lyonia web site will then automatically process your upload, creating a article web page and a PDF from your content. It will also notify the editor-in-chief that your article is ready for review. You will be able to check the status of your article in your "Inbox".